Varieties:
Sweet Basil: Used in tomato sauce, pesto and salads. This is your classic Italian Basil
Purple Ruffles Basil: Ruffled, large and frilly purple leaves. Beautiful and fragrant. Stronger flavor than Sweet Basil but milder flavor than Green Ruffles. Adds color and flavor to herb vinegar.
Thai Basil: More tender and more intensely flavored than Sweet Basil. Thai basil seeds are highly aromatic with a licorice-basil aroma. Great in both Thai and Italian recipes. Wonderful container plant. Late flowering.
Round Midnight Basil: This highly aromatic purple leaf basil, a hybrid, with shiny leaves and dense habit promises a summer of fragrant and tasty pleasure. A garden attention-getter, each plant is full and round, 10-12″ tall, 8-10″ across, with showy spikes of light purple blooms.
Lemon Basil: Attractive, spreading silver-green plants. Lemony aroma and flavor for potpourris, tea, chicken, fish, vegetables and herb vinegar. Native to northwest India.
Greek Basil: Native to southeast Asia, basil has been used in cooking and for fragrances for centuries. Brought to Europe in the Middle Ages, it thrived in the Mediterranean region, as well as by the Caspian and Black Seas. Tiny leaves on dome shaped, 8″ tall plants. Great with tomatoes, in salads or sauces. Especially interesting in the garden.
Spicy Saber Basil: A distinct spicy note perfect for Asian dishes. Remains bushy and productive late into the season. Bright green saber-like ornamental leaves.
Genovese Basil: Extremely tender, fragrant, extra-large, dark green leaves. An Italian strain, best for pesto.
Cardinal Basil: Flaunts a unique scent, rich and heady with a touch of spice. Strong, deep burgundy stems hold the flowers above the smooth, bright green leaves, ensuring a vibrant show throughout the summer even as you continue harvesting fresh leaves. A beautiful standout in the herb patch and a flavorful addition to the ornamental bed.
Green Ruffles Basil: This variety has large, serrated and quilted leaves. Enhances the flavor of tomato dishes.
Boxwood Basil: Tight mounds of small leaves that resemble boxwood plants make a highly ornamental edging for the patio or for a container by the kitchen door. Bred in France for a highly flavorful pesto ingredient. A beautiful basil variety that makes a fine garden companion.
Summerlong Basil: Very compact, tight bushes, slow to bolt, densely covered with shiny, bright green leaves. Great for pots and ornamental edging in vegetable beds.
Lime Basil: A rare and hard to find seed variety. Lime basil is sweet and fragrant with a mild citrus taste. The lime scent of the bright green, lance-shaped leaves pair perfectly with lemon basil, for a full explosion of tangy fresh flavor. Excellent for flavoring sauces, dressings and desserts.
Here is a more complete list of basil varieties taken from Wikipedia.
| Ocimum basilicum cultivars | ||
|---|---|---|
| Common name | Species and cultivars | Description |
| Sweet basil | O. basilicum | With a strong clove scent when fresh.[6] |
| Lettuce leaf basil | O. basilicum 'Lettuce Leaf' | Has leaves so large they are sometimes used in salads.[7] |
| Mammoth basil | O. basilicum'Mammoth' | Another large-leaf variety, stronger flavor than sweet Genovese.[8] |
| Genovese basil | O. basilicum'Genovese Gigante' | Almost as popular as sweet basil, with similar flavor.[8][9][10][11] |
| Nufar basil | O. basilicum 'Nufar F1' | Variety of Genovese resistant to fusarium wilt. |
| Spicy globe basil | O. basilicum 'Spicy Globe' | Grows in a bush form, very small leaves, strong flavor.[12] |
| Greek Yevani basil | O. basilicum 'Greek Yevani' | Organically grown version of Spicy globe basil. |
| Fino verde basil | O. basilicum piccolo | Small, narrow leaves, sweeter, less pungent smell than larger leaved varieties.[13] |
| Boxwood basil | O. basilicum'Boxwood' | Grows tightly like boxwood, very small leaves, strong flavor, great for pestos. |
| Purple ruffles basil | O. basilicum 'Purple Ruffles' | Solid purple, rich and spicy and a little more anise-like than the flavor of Genovese Basil. |
| Magical Michael | O. basilicum 'Magical Michael' | Award-winning hybrid with an uncommon degree of uniformity, and nice flavor for culinary use.[14] |
| Dark opal basil | O. basilicum'Purpurascens' | Award-winning variety, developed at the University of Connecticut in the 1950s.[15] |
| Red rubin basil | O. basilicum 'Red Rubin' | Strong magenta color, similar flavor to sweet basil, also called Opal basil.[8] |
| Osmin purple basil | O. basilicum 'Osmin Purple' | Dark shiny purple with a jagged edge on the leaves, smaller leaves than red rubin.[16] |
| Cuban basil | O. basilicum | Similar to sweet basil, with smaller leaves and stronger flavor, grown from cuttings.[17] |
| Thai basil | O. basilicum var. thyrsiflorum | Called Ho-ra-pa (ต้นโหระพา) in Thai, gets its scent of licorice from estragole.[5] |
| 'Siam Queen' | O. basilicum var. thyrsiflorum 'Siam Queen'[18] | A named cultivar of Thai Basil |
| Cinnamon basil | O. basilicum'Cinnamon' | Also called Mexican spice basil, with a strong scent of cinnamate, the same chemical as in cinnamon. Has purple flowers.[5] |
| Licorice basil | O. basilicum 'Licorice' | Also known as Anise basil or Persian basil, silvery leaves, spicy licorice smell comes from the same chemical as inanise, anethole. Thai basil is also sometimes called Licorice basil.[19] |
| Mrs. Burns lemon basil | O. basilicum var.citriodora 'Mrs. Burns' | Clean, aromatic lemon scent, similar to lemon basil.[18] |
| Ocimum americanum (formerly known as O. canum) cultivars | ||
| Common name | Species and cultivars | Description |
| Lemon basil | O. americanum[18] | Contains citral and limonene, therefore actually does smell very lemony, tastes sweeter. Originally, and sometimes still, called "hoary basil". Popular in Indonesia, where it is known as 'kemangi'. Also sometimes 'Indonesian basil'. |
| Lime basil | O. americanum | Similar to lemon basil.[16] |
| Ocimum ×citriodorum cultivars | ||
| Common name | Species and cultivars | Description |
| Greek column basil | O. ×citriodorum'Lesbos' | Columnar basil, can only be propagated from cuttings.[20] |
| Thai lemon basil | O. ×citriodorum | Called mangluk (แมงลัก) in Thai. It has a citrus odor, with a distinct Lemon-balm-like flavor[5] |
| Other Species and Hybrids | ||
| Common name | Species and cultivars | Description |
| Holy basil | O. sanctum (alt. O. tenuiflorum) | Also sacred basil, Tulsi (तुलसी) in Hindi, a perennial breed from India, used in Ayurveda, for worship, and in Thai cooking.[5] |
| Clove Basil | O. gratissimum | |
| Greek bush basil(Greek Spicy Globe Basil) | O. minimum (alt. O. basilicum var.minimum) | Forms a nearly perfectly round globe, with thin, tiny leaves and a delicious scent. Despite its name, the variety probably originated in Chile.[21] |
| Dwarf bush basil | O. minimum | Unusually small bush variety, similar to Greek bush basil.[6] |
| African Blue basil | O. kilimandscharicum × basilicum | A sterile perennial hybrid, with purple coloration on its leaves and containing a strong portion of actual camphor in its scent.[5] |
| Spice basil | O. basilicum × americanum | A fruity/musky-scented cultivar sometimes sold as Holy Basil |
| Sweet Dani basil | O. basilicum × americanum | A vigorous, large-leaved green basil with a strong, fresh lemon scent,[22] a 1998 All-American Selection.[23] |
There are many varieties of basil to suit your needs. This posting I wanted to give you a list of the many different types and their properties. Next posting I will touch on what other things basil can be used for. Hopefully this list can give you some insight into what type of basil you would like to grow and for what purpose.
